Commander Cube!

 With the release of Commander 2013, and my mind firmly fixed on limited, I decided to make my first foray into the world of cubing! Now, bear in mind I have no previous knowledge of how to cube, nor any real need to make a cube "competitive" whatever that means. Now, on to the cube itself!

 This cube consists of only Commander 2011, Commander 2013, Planechase, and Commander's Arsenal cards, and even then, it seems to have touched 700 cards, which seems like a big deal. It's a singleton cube, and the multiples in Planechase aren't really multiples in the cube. Fixing is plentiful, 71 cards to do that for us, and a ton of creatures and powerful, multiplayer themed spells.

 Speaking of multiplayer, the way this cube is played is an 8 player draft, and the first round will be two tables of 4 players each. That's right, just like EDH is played. Now, the deck size minimum is upped to 60 cards, to support this multiplayer format, and to top it off, your deck needs to have a commander, and is regulated by normal commander rules. The commander is either a) Drafted by you or b) Given to you by our dear friend, EDH Ultimate Bravery. A commander is by default assigned to you by Ultimate Bravery, and you can choose to use it, or use one you drafted. Now, the deck is not limited color-wise by your commander at all. It simply needs to share colors with your Commander. (After all, what's a commander if he/she is not castable?) The final match, after the two FFA victors are crowned, is a 1vs1 match, so be sure to board your True-Name Nemeses!

EDH Ultimate Bravery: http://www.falconsyndicate.net/EDHGen.aspx

 The cube itself will be tweaked over time, and some cards removed, some cards added, depending on which deck ends up being broken or much weaker than the others, and it will all be fixed over time. For now, the cube only consists of cards from the above sets, but I'm willing to add more fun, interactive cards over time. Some cards seem kinda poor at first, and I'm willing to give some cards a shot. The list will probably be ever changing over the first few tests, and we'll go from there.

The Cube Itself: http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/commander-cube-25-10-13-1/

Anyway, let's hope we have fun cubing!

Cheers,
Brick

EDIT: Since the Commanders themselves make too much of an issue, we will be doing away with them entirely. So the games will be 4-way FFA and then a final 1 vs 1. Now, some cards seem bland at first sight and some pretty amazing, and we'll see where it goes. I'm open to suggestions to add cards instead of such cards like Colossal Might but we'll deal with that later.

My Draft Deck: Hard Naya

Hi all, today I'll be discussing a draft I did today, and the deck won two rounds, and would probably have lost to Beu's supernatural UB deck in the final round if I didn't have to go somewhere.

1 Voyaging Satyr
2 Lightning Strike
2 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
1 Divine Verdict
1 Vulpine Goliath
1 Heliod's Emissary
1 Traveler's Amulet
3 Borderland Minotaur
2 Setessan Griffin
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Burnished Hart
1 Purphoros's Emissary
1 Stoneshock Giant
1 Last Breath
2 Rage of Purphoros
1 Magma Jet
6 Forest
6 Mountain
5 Plains
SB: 1 Guardians of Meletis
SB: 3 Pheres-Band Centaurs
SB: 1 Artisan's Sorrow
SB: 1 Ray of Dissolution
SB: 1 Portent of Betrayal
SB: 1 Chronicler of Heroes
SB: 1 Karametra's Acolyte
SB: 1 Last Breath
SB: 1 Hopeful Eidolon
SB: 1 Spearpoint Oread

This deck is pretty heavy in all the colors, but it gets around it's mana-hunger with Sylvan Caryatid, Voyaging Satyr, and Burnished Hart. If anything, I wish I had more fixing, or that I adjusted the mana base a little better. It's slightly heavier in Red than it's other two colors, by a little bit. The deck is VERY removal which I'm particularly happy about. Removal is hard to come by, and apparently was very populous this draft. I ended up cutting a Last Breath as even though it's very potent in this draft format, I don't want a dead card in my hand late in the game. It's still there in my side however, so against quick decks I can always bring it in. Karametra's Acolyte, while making a lot of mana given another green permanent, really doesn't cut it in terms of ramp. At the very worst scenario, it provides a single green mana, too late, honestly. Voyaging Satyr was my P1P1, because it really is the best ramp card in Theros, even better than Burnished Hart, in green. Burnished Hart does provide another function other than ramp, which Voyaging Satyr doesn't do, which is fixing. Apart from that, the deck is a lot of general goodstuff and good beats. Fairly easy to play, but different from other decks in that it really has a lot of sideboard options.

 It could be argued that Ray of Dissolution could be mainboarded easily in Theros, but I felt that I really had too few creatures and needed to supplement the creature base. Ray and Artisan's Sorrow got cut despite my adherence to playing at least one enchantment hate card in the mainboard, simply because I wanted to bring in the beats rather than disrupt their strategies. In hindsight, mainboarding Ray could have been a strategy, because the deck was stopped outright by Baleful Eidolon, and the lifegain would have definitely helped.

Sideboarding, I brought in Guardians of Meletis, 1 copy of Pheres-Band Centaurs and all the enchantment hate I could find against UW Heroic, and left in all the removal. Then I played against BW, where I again boarded in enchantment hate, (probably should have mained it anyway). Against BW I also brought in my other copy of Last Breath because of the very very annoying Phalanx Leader it had which really did a lot of work in game 1. The games generally lasted long with this deck, but were really very fun.

I always welcome feedback, and you can always drop comments or find me on Cockatrice. As always, have fun drafting!

Cheers,
Brick

UB Shipwreck

Hi guys! After a day of inactivity (because there was the Pro Tour), we're back with another article by our most active guest! Remember that you can send your articles or decklists to us!

PhEnOm here once again, with another sample drafted list. This Archetype like Brick and Beu said, another "Fringe" deck. The "Shipwreck" deck. For those who miss the reference this is about blue/black. The reference is to Shipwreck Singer:

The deck I find is very mana intensive, but it can be hard for an opponent to deal with. This color combo makes use of a very powerful common. Returned Phalanx stops allot of the early game aggro that most decks count on. And late game gets up and dishes out some damage of its own. Here is the deck list that I had for this archtype recently.

Played cards:

Creatures:

2 Returned Phalanx

1 Omenspeaker
2 Blood-Toll Harpy

1 Mogis's Marauder

2 Tormented Hero

2 Shipwreck Singer
1 Keepsake Gorgon
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
1 Wavecrash triton

2 Disciple of Phenax

Other Spells:
1 Fate Foretold

2 Triton Tactics

2 Griptide

1 Ordeal of Thassa

1 Sip of Hemlock

1 Lash of the Whip

Lands:

1 Temple of Deceit

8 Swamp

8 Island

Notable cards that did not make deck:

1 Stymied Hopes

2 Viper's Kiss

1 Scourgemark

1 Annul

1 Triton Fortune Hunter (last card to be cut)

The main issue here is that Returned Phalanx and Shipwreck Singer require mana on a turn basis to be effective. The idea is to use siren to force unfavorable attacks that you opponents cannot enjoy. Not only does it force certain guys to swing, but it can weaken them as well. Making them easy prey for your blockers. There is also a nice combo in this deck that I found while playing. Tormented Hero and Triton Tactics are very nice together. You get the heroic from Tormented Hero and you get to block with a now 2/4, who frostbreaths a creature for a turn. This was my first experience with the siren, and I do like her ability. 

The weaknesses this deck has are the "Big guy" tactics of green decks. Nessian Asp, for example, wrecks this deck. The other creatures that those decks can produce, they just outrank our guys very quickly. Most of the creatures in blue/black are small and they need combat advantages to win.

Drafting this deck is sometimes hard as Shipwreck Singers are seen as already good and at uncommon they go fast. You need very good blue cards that people are already taking, like Voyage's End, Griptide, Sea God's Revenge. Triton Tactics is better here than in most decks because you can force certain creatures to be tapped for a combat phase. 

Black offers you one early removal card, one midrange, and one late removal card. Pharika's Cure kills most small dudes but is sometimes hard to cast. Lash of the Whip can hit some of those troublesome "Dinosaurs". Also very powerful when used in conjunction with shipwreck siren. Sip of Hemlock kills anything (the only card at common range to do this) and they lose 2 life. Sadly black's ideal role in this set is the Devotion deck. I feel that you really have to lean on blue, which in my book is the best draft color in Theros (agruements can be made for White and Red also). 

May all your opponents be mana-screwed when you need to win big. 

PhEnOm out.